A right wing extremist sharing my thoughts on technology, politics, and life; in no particular order.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Follow the bouncing ball

Some friends whose computer I regularly support called and invited me to a meeting so that I could see the new electronic business they are involved with. When I asked what it was, they said it was their own business and they could sell almost anything online.

OK, I thought, sounds like a drop-ship affiliate business where they will be selling the same stuff as thousands of other folks. Big dreams, little real downside -- other than reality. I asked who was behind it was was told an outfit called Quickstar, whom I'd never heard of. I figured it was harmless and thought I would attend and have a few chuckles.

Well, last night I did some serious surfing and found out that my friends had been lured into Quixtar. More on them in a minute.

What is the best way to empty a crowded room?

Casually mention that you sell Amw*y -- and you'll soon be alone.

I had heard rumors that Amw*y had finally alienated so great a percentage of the planet's population, that they were undergoing a major rebranding effort. There may well be something to that rumor.

Quixtar is Amw*y. No, I don't know if it is owned by Amw*y. I don't know if there is any legal connection. But it is definitely Amw*y -- wearing an all new dress.

Now recognizing that there is no single adult over the age of 21 who had not heard the Amw*y sales pitch, let me ask if any of this sound familiar.

You sell product or buy it for your own use.

If your total monthly PV is $100.00 you earn a 3% commission. Your upstream earns up to 22% on the same sales you made.

Why, if you recruit six other people, and each sells $195 a month, you'll earn $800 a month.

And, if you recruit the entire population of the state of Nevada, and each sells 16 energy bars, you'll earn the gross national product of the nation of Peru -- and get to sail there on a luxury yacht, while dining on caviar and energy bars.

So then I read the fine print. Right off their educational brochure (they insist they are not selling anything, just sharing).

Share this!

An active participant -- (they call them IBOs) is defined as someone who:

Received bonus money. (Hey buddy, wanna see the nice shiny dollar coin I just got as a bonus?)

Or attended a meeting sponsored by the company or another IBO. (Hey buddy, come to my house tonight, there is something cool I want to show you.)

So, using this very broad definition, they claim that 60% of all IBOs of record are active. Fair enough.

Now they say that the average month gross income (not profit, sales!) is $115. Maybe my math is bad, but that means that the average IBO earns a few cents more than $3 a month.

Then they go on to say that just one out of every 218 active IBOs actually (their word!) achieved $29,400 BV in at least one month of the year. That means, to me, that 99.5% of all IBO fail to reach this level a single time in a 12 month period.

Now, what the heck is BV and PV. Why those are classic old Amw*y terms that relate to sale. PV is (or used to be) Performance Value and is pretty close to a 1:1 to sale. The brochure I received does not define BV, but repeatedly says 200PV = 560BV, so I'm thinking that 1 PV=2.8 BV. If I am correct, then 29,400BV would equate to a touch more than $10,000 in sales from the IBO and all the downstream recruits the IBO has signed up.

And yes, I mostly behaved during the meeting. Sure, I rolled my eyes and groaned aloud when they predicted that between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010 e-commerce market penetration will jump from 35% to 80%. If that is not a statistically improbable event, let me explain John McCain's position on free speech.

So beware of old programs in new dresses, especially those embroidered with PV Loves BV.

I did kind of hope they would pass out samples of SA-8 laundry soap, but that was a cause of disappointment as well.

2 comments:

If you are ever approached by people you haven't seen for years and years, and they mention that they would love to see you sometime to reminisce and catch up with you, and oh, they'd like to bring someone along with them, if you don't mind, because you just got to hear what he has to say since it will just blow you away with all the wonderful possibilites for changing your life and expanding your horizons, and just look at how rich these people are with their cars and houses, then you know your "friend" is into Amw*y.

Funny thing about Amw*y speakers, they always brag about their near wanton spending on boats, trips, jewels, fancy cars and the like.

You never hear them speak of funding after school reading programs, sponsoring Habitat for Humanity builds, sponsoring youth sports teams or doing any of the other things that "real" small, medium and large businesses do.